There's A Weird Story Going Around About How Argentina's President Just Saved A Jewish Man From Becoming A Werewolf

Everyone
thinks that the President of Argentina Christina Fernández
de Kirchner adopted a young Jewish man in order to
stop him from turning into a werewolf. The story was reported
by The
Independent and others.

Well,
the story's kind of true — Fernández de
Kirchnerdid adopt
the young man as her godson — but not to keep him from turning
into a werewolf.

There's an old Argentinian legend that a seventh child will
turn into "el lobizon" — aka a werewolf — after his 13th
birthday, and then terrorize the Argentinian countryside at night
whenever there's a full moon, as reported by the Independent. In
the 19th century, parents were reportedly so spooked by "el
lobizon" that they started abandoning and murdering their 7th
children.

Around the same time, in the early 20th century, another
tradition involving a seventh child came to be. Argentinian
presidents started adopting the seventh child born in a family as
godchildren.

Over the last few days, sources have been reporting that
this Argentinian custom was adopted as a response to the murder
and abandonment of these "el lobizon" children.

However, others
like the Guardian are debunking this. Reportedly, the
godchild custom goes back all the way to 1907 when Russian
emigrés asked the then-president José Figueroa Alcorta to become
the godfather to their seventh son, reports the Guardian.

"The local myth of the lobizón is not in
any way connected to the custom that began over 100 years ago by
which every seventh son (or seventh daughter) born in Argentina
becomes godchild to the president," Argentine historian Daniel
Balmaceda told
The Guardian.

So what exactly what special about Iair Tawil's case?
Traditionally, the seventh son or daughter could only become a
godchild of the Argentinian president if he or she was Christian.
But Tawil was the first Jewish young man to do so — making it
a tweet-worthy affair.

Fernández has become the president godmother to roughly 700
children since she took office in 2007, reports The
Guardian.